Some teachers struggle with how to create a yoga sequence. Do you notice how it helps students to learn asana and other yogic methods in stages, adding on more complex elements after mastering more rudimentary ones? Have you used this to help advance your student’s practices? I think of this concept from a few different angles. First, we can add to sequences as students master their first basic “skeleton” structures.
Skeletal Alignment
With learning specific yoga sequences in stages, I think of dance training. Effective instructors and choreographers teach class exercises or choreographic phrases in little pieces. Once dancers can successfully execute what they’ve been taught, then teachers/choreographers add on. This approach gives students the time and mental space to learn a series of sequential movements – increasing self-confidence and grace in movement quality while reducing the risk of injury.
This way of teaching translates well to Vinyasa flow, with yoga sequences that can include several different postures. We instructors can break up longer sequences into two or three parts, first teaching the first part. Then we can lead the sequence again, and add on a second part. Then a third, if applicable. Of course, unlike dance, it doesn’t matter what it “looks” like, and striving for something more isn’t the most effective approach. On the other hand, all the aforementioned benefits of learning in stages apply to asana instruction, especially those with many postures together in sequences (such as Vinyasa).
This approach can also help yoga instructors effectively teach mixed-level classes – something that’s more and more common, with all types of people of all levels of physical ability engaging in yoga sequence practice. For instance, we can teach second (and maybe third) parts of certain sequences while making it clear to our students that they can still just do the first (or first or second) parts – if they want to take that time to work on certain postures in the skeleton sequence.
Or perhaps there’s a medical reason – an injury or more complex contraindication – for not practicing a certain posture in a later part of a sequence. Students can choose for themselves to challenge themselves with perhaps more advanced postures in later parts of sequences, or make conscious decisions that it’s better for them to keep working on a former part – taking more time in each posture or taking a more restful posture to fill that time.
This idea easily translates to practicing pranayama as well. We can guide students in basic three and four-part breath patterns this way, for instance. We can guide students that if they’ve established a clear rhythm of inhaling and exhaling, they can add breath retention (kumbhaka) in between the inhale and exhale. If that is comfortable, they can add another breath retention at the end of the exhale – creating a four-part breath. We, instructors, can (and should, in my opinion) guide students that at any point, they can keep working on what they’re presently doing instead of progressing to the next step.
In the longer scope of our students’ practices, we can take this idea into the ways we help them advance their practices over time. That’s obviously not possible with students we might see once or twice but can work well with longer-term private students and those who regularly attend ongoing group classes. It doesn’t make sense – and could very well lead to discouragement, not to mention injury – to teach students Koundinyasana if they haven’t yet mastered arm balancing fundamentals through Crow Pose. We can most effectively guide them if we carefully watch how they progress, and introduce perhaps more complex and advanced asanas when they’re ready.
That idea can be an important reminder for our students, offered at any frequency. I recently had a student, whom I had never taught before, approach me before class to request an intermediate to advanced class. Once the class was rolling, I came to see that he had a lot to learn when it comes to safe, stable, and practice-enhancing alignment. I’ll wager that most instructors have met similar students at one point or another, who work like a builder adding embellishments to a building before there’s a firm foundation.
We can remind these types of students that creating yoga sequences is similar to constructing a building – it needs a foundation first. If they manage to put this guidance into action, they’ll be safer and have more enjoyable practice experiences. In my view, that’s the most important part of our job as yoga instructors – to guide our students in safe and enjoyable practices.
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